Japanese Bento, Anyone?

When I used to work at a kindergarten here in Japan, the kids would come in with the most intricate, cutest lunch boxes. Princess inspired lunch boxes, super hero characters... They diabolically masked vegetables and boring finger foods in fun disguises and tricked their toddlers into enjoying them. I mean, the moms made something as simple as a carrot cute and appetizing. I hate veggies but I gotta admit, even I wanted to try some of their lunches.

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I decided I was going to give it a try and made my very first bento two years ago. It was time consuming, I'll admit. Much longer than I'd like to admit, but then again, I do not know my way around the kitchen and am not even confident with making boiled eggs. So I managed to somehow put together a bento and documented my pathetic attempt. It was cute I guess, if you compare it to a plain peanut butter and jelly sandwich I suppose... I know it was no where near the level of those other ones I've seen, but I tried. 

Considering the time I spent on the last one, I thought there would be no way that I'd get up all extra early to make those bentos for my children, whenever I have them. However, taking another look at the book I bought which helped me make the first bento, I saw some cool ideas which only required you to microwave the food to prepare them.

I'm all about saving time and using little effort. In other words, I'm lazy. So instead of frying or boiling things, I was happy that all you needed to do was microwave things in salt water or sugar water. Anyway, if you're interested you can check out the videos to see how I made them. Maybe you can use it for some ideas to jazz up your lunches =)

Here is my first attempt:

And this is my second attempt: